The Pittsburgh Pirates are somehow the hottest team in the NL Central once again after they swept division rival St. Louis over the weekend. They came into Monday’s game winning five in a row dating back to their only series win in May against the San Francisco Giants. The Oakland Athletics on the other hand came into the game with a measly 12 wins through three months of the MLB season and just got swept by the Marlins. Coming into the series opener the Buccos were a half-game out of first in the NL Central while the A’s are 27.5 games out of first in the AL West. This game sported a matchup of two struggling pitchers in Bucco’s righty Johan Oviedo, and A’s southpaw JP Sears.
Oakland quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first after leadoff man Esteury Ruiz reached on a catcher’s interference call, and stole second base on the very next pitch. Ryan Noda then singled to center to open up the scoring. The A’s added two more runs in the third while the Bucco’s offense sputtered.
Johan Oviedo struggled in this game putting multiple runners on and in scoring position early and often, and to top it off the Bucco’s bats couldn’t find the ball against a struggling pitcher. The Pirates went hitless through the first four innings of the game. They managed to leave four runners on three of which were in scoring position even while going hitless.
A’s starter JP Sears threw a whopping 88 pitches through four no-hit innings. Maybe the Pittsburgh Pierogi race would rejuvenate this dreadful Pirates offense. Second baseman Mark Mathias led off the fifth with the Buc’s first hit of the game. Just like that the no-hitter was gone and the Bucs were aggressive at the dish. Conner Joe got the Bucs on the board with a 2-out double which chased starter Sears. Lucas Erceg came in and shut the door after walking Carlos Santana to load the bases.
Ke’Bryan Hayes kept his hot bat going collecting the Pirate’s third hit of the game. The Pirates then took back-to-back walks after Ji Hwan Bae struck out to load the bases for Pittsburgh’s “Golden Boy” Andrew McCutchen. After a few pitches high and tight one of which appeared to shake McCutchen up, Fujinami battled back before eventually walking ‘Cutch and bringing home the second run. Bryan Reynolds came up and brought in the game-tying run with the second bases-loaded walk of the inning. Jack Suwinski pinch hit for Conner Joe and hit a sacrifice fly to right to score the go-ahead run however, Andrew McCutchen got thrown out at third trying to tag up after the run scored.
A’s manager Mark Kotsay got thrown out of the game after Oviedo struck out Ryan Noda to end the seventh after arguing balls and strikes a handful of times throughout the game. Pirates youngster Johan Oviedo settled down after his rocky start finishing with a stat line of 7.0 innings pitched, 4 hits, 3 runs but only 2 earned, and 5 strikeouts.
The A’s weren’t ready to lay down though in the top of the 8th. Brent Rooker lead the inning off with a walk before pinch hitter Aledmys Diaz doubled him home, and the A’s loaded the bases with one out. Angel Perdomo worked out of the jam he inherited to strand the bases loaded and bring the Buc’s up in the 8th. Andrew McCutchen put the Bucs back ahead after a sac fly to right to bring in the speedy Ji Hwan Bae.
Top of the ninth, with the Bucco’s up one run skipper Derek Shelton went to his setup man Colin Holdernan to give his lights-out closer David Bednar a day off after pitching three straight days over the weekend and recording three straight saves. A’s speedster Ruiz led off the 9th with a single to center before eventually getting thrown out attempting to steal second which came back to bite the Athletics as Noda doubled, and Brent Rooker singled to put runners on the corners. Aledmys Diaz then hit a shallow pop to center fielder Bae to get the second out before Holderman struck out Carlos Perez to end the game.
The Buccos took game one of this three-game series by a final of 5-4, Angel Perdomo was your winning pitcher, Sam Moll took the loss, and Colin Holderman picked up his first save of the season. Mitch Keller takes the mound for the Buc’s Tuesday’s middle game of the series in hopes to keep up his incredible stretch of starts and keep the A’s at bay for another day.